It was a triumph, and as two million spectators turned out to watch the Tour de France come to Yorkshire, one native of God's Own County may have been pinching himself to make sure it was happening. That was Gary Verity, the man who persuaded the French to bring their sporting crown jewels to the north of England.

Four years ago Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, began to dream of bringing the Tour to his county. Rival bids from Florence, Barcelona and Edinburgh were fought off, and Verity has now watched the Grand Départ take place in Leeds.

Verity, 48, is a sheep farmer who runs his tourist and promotional organisation from an office in the city. He claims to have had the idea of bagging the biggest annual sporting event in the world one morning while shaving. That, he says, is when he has all his best ideas.

After a career in the City of London, Verity returned to the countryside when his wife, Helen, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. A few months after her death in December 2009, he came up with the compelling idea, which he felt would help both him and Yorkshire. He felt that the county he loved was in danger of becoming disgruntled and envious in character.

"I encountered a lot of strange attitudes being back in Yorkshire," he told a newspaper last week. "There was this chip on our shoulder about Manchester. You know, 'Manchester can do this' or 'Manchester have got that.' That never used to be the case."

In the runup to the 2012 London Olympics, Verity sat on the nations and regions group and argued that Yorkshire needed its answer to Manchester's 2002 Commonwealth Games.

"That was my thought. What could we do in Yorkshire that would be globally massive?" he told the Ilkley Gazette. "The Olympics and the World Cup are clearly not on the agenda – and the next biggest world event is the Tour de France. Yorkshire has huge cycling heritage through the likes of Beryl Burton, Brian Robertson and Barry Hoban, along with the current crop of cyclists. We also have the scenery and hills needed to stage the Tour de France."

This weekend the Dales and surrounding towns are swathed with the yellow of the Tour de France, but the very first yellow Y for Yorkshire was the one Verity mowed into the lawn of his Coverdale farmhouse in May 2012. He had borrowed a helicopter from a friend to fly in the French organisers of the Tour, including race director Christian Prudhomme. After a glass of lager and Yorkshire-pudding canapes, two stretch limos took the party on a tour of Middleham Castle, home of Richard III, Swinton Park and Harewood House. Dinner was provided by a Michelin-starred local chef and among the guests of honour was Robinson, the first British winner of a Tour de France stage, back in 1958.

In the light of the Tour's traditional links with the French equivalent of the National Farmers Union, Verity carefully stressed the agricultural angle, but the delegation's visit ended with an urban coup de théâtre. On a walk through Leeds, the big television screen in Millennium Square switched from showing BBC News to a promotional film for Yorkshire's bid, ending with a personal plea from cyclist Mark Cavendish.

"Christian Prudhomme's jaw hit the ground at that point, and he later told me that was when he knew we could deliver the Grand Depárt," Verity has recalled. On the way to the Eurostar, Prudhomme confirmed that he was impressed. "Yorkshire," he announced, "is very sexy."

Following Bradley Wiggins's victory, the Tour team decided the Depárt needed to return to Britain – stages were held in Plymouth in 1974 and the south-east in 1994 and 2007 – soon, and the battle with Edinburgh, the government's preferred candidate, began. This "official" bid was awarded £10m, including £1.75m from UK Sport, but in Yorkshire Verity signed a contract with Amaury Sport Organisation, ASO, the private French company that organises the Tour.

Funding was not finalised for every aspect of the bid when in December 2012, while Verity was attending a school carol concert, he got the good news. After a year of lobbying, £10m was allocated by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The big fee to ASO was not, Verity said, a stumbling block either. In fact he thinks it is "incredible value for money".

Yet these days few French city councils can afford to bid for the Grand Depárt, and several have expressed astonishment at the figures attached to this year's three British stages.